This being the first Sunday of May we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion.
The Scripture Readings this week are:
- Deuteronomy 5:11-22
- Psalm 78:1-7
- Romans 13:8-10
The Sermon title is Law, Love, Life
Early Thoughts: In the list of gifts we have been given by God lies a number of rules (or laws, or commandments). That is right, the Law is a gift, rules are a gift, limits on behaviour are a gift.
They are a gift because they enrich our lives. They are a gift because they help us show love for each other.
Christians sometimes get it wrong. Sometimes we read Paul and think he is denigrating the Law. Sometimes we think Grace and Gospel do away with Law (and then create new law to replace it). Sometimes Christians think the Law is about works righteousness, about behaving properly so that we are worthy of the gift of Grace and are justified with God. But still the Law, Torah, is a gift.
It may sometimes be a complicated gift. But it is still a gift. God loves the people so much, God has such hope for what the people could be, that God gives them a way to structure their lives and relationships with God and with each other. God give boundaries because God knows, as Robert Frost also knew, that "good fences make good neighbours". Boundaries help us love each other -- sometimes in the keeping and sometimes in the breaking of the fence.
After lunch to day I read this week's edition of Life is a Sacred Text by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg. AS is true every week there are a lot of wonderful things in there. But I want to share this piece:
Without a spiritual practice, without connection with the Holy, we will be toast. We will burn out. We will lose sight of the big picture. We will forget that the reason this all matters is because each of us was created sacred and irreplaceable, in the image of the divine, and that our showing up is to take care of anyone we might be able to help, to change systems to try to take care of all of us. The work is going to be hard and we have to find our way to the wellspring.
Malbim says we must cultivate our ways of being in the world that are concordant with our values.
And the Sfat Emet says it is about drawing our deeds to follow the light—that our actions in the world are the result of choices of light, not of darkness. That what we do in the world follows and brings more light. Even if it doesn’t change everything. Even if it can’t singlehandedly fix all of the problems.
Your actions just need to bring more light.
Reminding ourselves of the rules, the laws that lead to love, are part of what leads us to actions that bring more light. And when we bring more light life becomes more abundant. When life becomes more abundant love flourishes. Which leads to more light and more abundant life and the spiral continues to build.
The essence of the Law is love. Jesus said so. Paul said so. Deuteronomy and Leviticus say so (in passages used by Jesus referring to loving God and loving neighbour).
Law is gift. Boundaries and rules help us love each other. Love leads to life.
I close with these words about the Law, about the gift from God, from Psalm 1:
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.
May we all be like trees planted by the water. May the water of life keep our leaves from withering in the heat and storms of life. It can be hard to follow rules. It can be hard to know which boundaries need to be kept. Still, God calls us to meditate on the Law and discern how best shall we live.
--Gord
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